PARRIS N. GLENDENING, Governor

Ch. 609

(4) obtain information concerning the location of the obligor and the
obligor's property within this State not exempt from execution, by such means as postal
verification and federal or state locator services, examination of telephone directories,
requests for the obligor's address from employers, and examination of governmental
records, including, to the extent not prohibited by other law, those relating to real
property, vital statistics, law enforcement, taxation, motor vehicles, drivers' licenses, and
Social Security.

[10-320.] 10-323.

(a)     A plaintiff seeking to establish or modify a support order or to determine
parentage in a proceeding under this subtitle must verify the complaint. Unless otherwise
ordered under § [10-321] 10-324 of this subtitle (Nondisclosure of information in
exceptional circumstances), the plaintiff or accompanying documents must provide, so far
as known, the name, residential address, and Social Security numbers of the obligor and
the obligee and the name, sex, residential address, Social Security number, and date of
birth of each child for whom support is sought. The complaint must be accompanied by a
certified copy of any support order in effect. The complaint may include any other
information that may assist in locating or identifying the defendant.

(b)     The complaint must specify the relief sought. The complaint and
accompanying documents must conform substantially with the requirements imposed by
the forms mandated by federal law for use in cases filed by a support enforcement agency.

[10-321.] 10-324.

Upon a finding, which may be made ex parte, that the health, safety, or liberty of a
party or child would be unreasonably put at risk by the disclosure of identifying
information, or if an existing order so provides, a tribunal shall order that the address of
the child or party or other identifying information not be disclosed in a pleading or other
document filed in a proceeding under this subtitle.

[10-322.] 10-325.

(a)     The plaintiff may not be required to pay a filing fee or other costs.

(b)     If an obligee prevails, a responding tribunal may assess against an obligor
filing fees, reasonable attorney's fees, other costs, and necessary travel and other
reasonable expenses incurred by the obligee and the obligee's witnesses. The tribunal may
not assess fees, costs, or expenses against the obligee or the support enforcement agency
of either the initiating or the responding state, except as provided by other law. Attorney's
fees may be taxed as costs, and may be ordered paid directly to the attorney, who may
enforce the order in the attorney's own name. Payment of support owed to the obligee has
priority over fees, costs, and expenses.

(c)     The tribunal [may] SHALL order the payment of costs and reasonable
attorney's fees if it determines that a hearing was requested primarily for delay. IN A
PROCEEDING UNDER PART VI OF THIS SUBTITLE (ENFORCEMENT AND
MODIFICATION OF SUPPORT ORDER AFTER REGISTRATION) A HEARING IS
PRESUMED TO HAVE BEEN REQUESTED PRIMARILY FOR DELAY IF A REGISTERED
SUPPORT ORDER IS CONFIRMED OR ENFORCED WITHOUT CHANGE

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